Spanning a vast 130,000 square meters and including everything from luxury travel items to second-hand cars, it is no wonder the 2016 China (Chongqing) Commodity Exhibition and Trading Fair is the largest consumer expo in western China.

The widely-anticipated four-day expo got underway in the municipality on Oct 13, with this year’s event marking a significant shift from traditional commercial modes to one supporting emerging consumer habits.

The expo coincides with several other festivals, including Chongqing Fashion Fair, the seventh session of the China Chongqing International Leisure Industry Exposition, the second session of the Chinese (Chongqing) Second-hand Car Consumption Festival and the Chongqing International Coffee "plus" Festival.

A pavilion featuring new cultural and creative commerce ideas attracted many artsy types, who quite enjoyed themselves by sampling coffee, desserts, books and floriculture.

The Chongqing International Food Festival also proved a hit, gathering not only famous local food but also exciting tastes from across the world, such as Italian ice cream and Japanese sushi.

Organizers hope the expo will create a new kind of commercial experience, enabling consumers to enjoy on-site shopping and entertainment.

Companies from Liangjiang New Area were among the exhibitors who set up innovative exhibition areas. Attracting crowds of new consumer groups was Zhubajie, the China’s largest crowdsourcing website, which provided visitors with intellectual property services and a 3D pavilion. The pavilion can efficiently create a home decoration prototype online through 3Dmax, BIM, VR and AR technologies. More than 2,000 people tried the intellectual property inquiry system to get a glimpse of the service.

Also on show was a cross-border e-commerce pavilion in a 1,100 square-meter area. Twenty companies brought 100,000 types of overseas products to the exhibition and were sold at maximum discounts, creating strong demand from local shoppers.

Visitors explore the world of consumer goods at the 2016 China (Chongqing) Commodity Exhibition and Trading at the Chongqing (Yuelai) International Expo Center on Oct 13. [Photo/liangjiang.gov.cn]

A cross-border e-commerce pavilion displays 100,000 types of overseas products from 20 companies. [Photo/liangjiang.gov.cn]

Zhubajie, China’s largest crowdsourcing website, displays an innovative exhibition area for intellectual property services and a 3D pavilion. [Photo/liangjiang.gov.cn]

Edited by Jake Hooson